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Photo by Jon Anderson
Former Hoover Mayor and Jefferson County Manager Tony Petelos serves as the keynote speaker at the Hoover Mayor's Prayer Breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
About 500 people attended the Hoover Mayor's Prayer Breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover Mayor Nick Derzis speaks at the Hoover Mayor's Prayer Breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
The Hoover High School First Edition Jazz Band plays at the Hoover Mayor's Prayer Breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Former Hoover Mayor and Jefferson County Manager Tony Petelos shakes hands with Kermit Kendrick after delivering the keynote address at the Hoover Mayor's Prayer Breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
About 500 people attended the Hoover Mayor's Prayer Breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
WBRC news anchor Janice Rogers serves as emcee at the Hoover Mayor's Prayer Breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Hunter Street Baptist Church Pastor Buddy Gray speaks at the Hoover Mayor's Prayer Breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Former Hoover Mayor and Jefferson County Manager Tony Petelos shakes hands with Hunter Street Baptist Church Pastor Buddy Gray at the Hoover Mayor's Prayer Breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
Former Hoover Mayor and Jefferson County Manager Tony Petelos on Tuesday shared a story about his family’s journey from war-torn Greece to America as proof of answered prayers during the 2026 Hoover Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast.
Petelos, who served as Hoover mayor from 2004 to 2011 and as Jefferson County manager from 2011 to 2021, shared the story with about 500 people gathered in the ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel.
Petelos’ parents were born and raised in Greece but were separated when his father, Nicholas Petelos, was called into active military duty in 1940 as Benito Mussolini was threatening to invade Greece.
His father was on a ship that was sunk during World War II but survived and was picked up by the British Navy. But he couldn’t get back home to Greece because it had been overtaken by the Nazis, Petelos said.
Nicholas Petelos made his way to Egypt and then to the United States, where he joined the U.S. Army to go back to Europe to fight the Germans.
After the war ended, Greece remained torn by a civil war between the Communists and pro-democracy groups, and Nicholas Petelos still couldn’t return.
In the meantime, his wife, Irene, was stuck in Greece during the Nazi occupation and civil war. She had no idea if her husband was dead or alive, and she was raising three children with soldiers outside her door and food hard to find, Petelos said.
She would send the kids — Petelos’ older siblings — out to pick dandelions, then boil the dandelions and eat them for supper and have the leftover juice for breakfast the next day. A fourth child who was born not long after Nicholas went off to war died because of food and medicine shortages, and she had to bury the baby herself, Petelos said.
But Petelos’ mother was a praying woman and never stopped praying or gave up hope, he said.
In 1947, she received a telegram through the American Red Cross, informing her that Nicholas was alive in the United States. The Red Cross got her on a U.S. ship that brought her and her three children to New York. “She trusted that God was opening a new door,” Petelos said.
The family was reunited with Nicholas in New York and settled in Waterloo, Iowa, for 1½ years before moving to Birmingham, where Tony Petelos was born.
But Nicholas died when Tony was 9 after he had complications from a simple surgery. She had to raise five children under the age of 14 by herself. She had never worked outside the home and didn’t speak English well. The family was on food stamps and used public transportation, and the kids went to work doing odd jobs to help support the family.
His mother stayed faithful in prayer and made sure she and the kids were in church every Sunday, Petelos said.
“My mother was a praying warrior. She prayed all the time,” Petelos said. “She wanted us to do the right thing. She wanted us to live a good life, and she did everything in her power to do that. We survived. We did good. We were able to make ends meet, and we did well.”
In 2006, when Petelos was mayor of Hoover, President George W. Bush visited Hoover to highlight what the city was doing with alternative fuels such as ethanol, and Petelos got to ride with the president in his limousine from a press conference to a luncheon.
He thought of his mother and everything she went through to make sure her kids would succeed and how her perseverance and prayers had led him to that very place, he said.
Petelos quoted what the apostle Paul had to say in Romans 5. “He reminds believers that our suffering is not wasted because God can use it to build endurance, shape our character and make our hope in Him,” Petelos said. “My mother lived those words, not in church, not in a classroom. She lived on an occupied island — the darkest years of the 20th century with children playing in the dirt and enemy soldiers outside her door. She endured, and she never, never — not for a single day — let go of hope.
“I think it’s safe to say my mother’s prayers for her family were answered, and we all were able to live the American dream,” Petelos said. “We’re living proof of what one woman can do with nothing but her faith and courage, the love she had for her family in the darkest times. God can use an ordinary person, a young mother on a small island, to do extraordinary things.”
As Petelo’s mother lay dying with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, Father Paul Costopoulos of the Holy Trinity + Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Cathedral came to sit with her and was reciting the Lord’s Prayer in Greek.
“She chimed right in,” Petelos said. “My mother prayer til the very end, til the last day of her life. She was a prayer warrior. I’m a firm believer that prayers are answered.”
Hoover Mayor Nick Derzis, who also attends Holy Trinity + Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Cathedral, told the prayer breakfast crowd that things move so fast in today’s world that it’s important to come together to recognize the importance of prayer, humility and service to others.
“Regardless of our individual faith traditions and beliefs, I think we all can agree our communities all thrive and do better when we acknowledge the importance of God in our lives and remember that leadership ultimately begins with serving others,” Derzis said. “We’re blessed by the people who give of themselves every single day to help others, strengthen families, lift up those in need and make Hoover the remarkable community that we love.”
He particularly noted Dwight and Sandy Sandlin, who six months ago created the Sandlin Foundation for Kids & Kindness, which already has committed $2.2 million for 14 charities.
“Leadership is not measured by the wealth we accumulate for ourselves, but by giving back to others,” Derzis said.
Derzis also thanked Petelos for appointing him as police chief in 2005. “Your trust and confidence really changed the course of my life, and I’ll always be grateful,” Derzis said.
